Microsoft Research Podcast

Every year, interns from academic institutions around the world apply and grow their knowledge as members of the research community at Microsoft. In this Microsoft Research Podcast series, these students join their internship supervisors to share their experience working alongside some of the leading researchers in their respective fields. In this episode, PhD students Jennifer Scurrell and Alejandro Cuevas talk to Senior Researcher Dr. Madeleine Daepp. They discuss the internship culture at Microsoft Research, from opportunities to connect with researchers they admire over coffee to the teamwork they say helped make it possible for them to succeed in the fast-paced environment of industry, and the impact they hope to have with their work. Learn more:Automated Interviewer or Augmented Survey? Collecting Social Data with Large Language Models | Publication, September 2023 

Hanna Wallach, an expert in measuring and mitigating harms in AI technologies, discusses the challenges of measuring fairness-related harms in AI systems and the importance of collaboration between policy, engineering, and research teams at Microsoft. She also explores the complexities of measuring social phenomena in AI chat systems and highlights the need for specificity, interpretability, and scalability in measuring harms caused by AI systems.

AI scientists Ahmed Awadallah and Ashley Llorens discuss the future of scale in AI, including advancements in large-scale models like GPT-4 and their impact on reasoning and problem-solving. They explore the dynamics between model size and data, the use of large-scale models to improve smaller ones, and the need for better evaluation strategies. They also delve into topics such as spending compute budget on bigger models, the capabilities and limitations of AI models, the concept of post-training in language model training, and advancements in AI and adaptive alignment.

Members of the research community at Microsoft work continuously to advance their respective fields. Abstracts brings its audience to the cutting edge with them through short, compelling conversations about new and noteworthy achievements.In the inaugural episode of the series, Dr. Ava Amini and Dr. Kevin K. Yang, both Senior Researchers with Microsoft Health Futures, join host Dr. Gretchen Huizinga to discuss “Protein generation with evolutionary diffusion: Sequence is all you need.” The paper introduces EvoDiff, a suite of models that leverages evolutionary-scale protein data to help design novel proteins more efficiently. Improved protein engineering has the potential to help create new vaccines to prevent disease and new ways to recycle plastics.

Every year, interns from academic institutions around the world apply and grow their knowledge as members of the research community at Microsoft. In this Microsoft Research Podcast series, these students join their internship supervisors to share their experience working alongside some of the leading researchers in their respective fields.In this episode, PhD students Anunay Kulshrestha and Karan Newatia talk to Senior Cryptographer Josh Benaloh about their work this summer on ElectionGuard, a free, open-source toolkit that enables voters to verify that their votes have been accurately counted. Kulshrestha and Newatia discuss their contributions to extending ElectionGuard to mail-in voting and rank-choice voting, respectively; what is needed for widespread adoption of the verifiable election technology; and why they’d recommend a Microsoft internship to other students.(Editor’s note: After its design and development by Microsoft, ElectionGuard is now part of the newly formed nonprofit Election Technology Initiative, which will join with Microsoft to further ElectionGuard’s growth and help advance its adoption.)Learn moreElectionGuard | Project pageThe next frontier in elections: Microsoft supports the Council of State Governments’ Election Technology Initiative | Microsoft On the Issues blog, July 2023Security and Cryptography | Group page

Powerful large-scale AI models like GPT-4 are showing dramatic improvements in reasoning, problem-solving, and language capabilities. This marks a phase change for artificial intelligence—and a signal of accelerating progress to come. In this Microsoft Research Podcast series, AI scientist and engineer Ashley Llorens hosts conversations with his collaborators and colleagues about what these models—and the models that will come next—mean for our approach to creating, understanding, and deploying AI, its applications in areas such as healthcare and education, and its potential to benefit humanity.This episode features Sriram Rajamani, Distinguished Scientist and Managing Director of Microsoft Research India. Rajamani talks about how the lab’s work is being influenced by today’s rapidly advancing AI. One example? The development of a conversational agent in India capable of providing information about governmental agricultural programs in farmers’ natural language, particularly significant in a country with more than 30 languages, including 22 government-recognized languages. It’s an application Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella described as the “mic drop moment” of his trip to the lab early this year.Learn moreAI4Bhārat | Organization homepageMEGA: Multilingual Evaluation of Generative AI | Publication, May 2023AI and Microsoft Research | Learn more about the breadth of AI research at Microsoft

Transforming research ideas into meaningful impact is no small feat. It often requires the knowledge and experience of individuals from across disciplines and institutions. Collaborators, a new Microsoft Research Podcast series, explores the relationships—both expected and unexpected—behind the projects, products, and services being pursued and delivered by researchers at Microsoft and the diverse range of people they’re teaming up with.In this episode, Dr. Gretchen Huizinga talks with Microsoft Health Futures Senior Director Javier Alvarez and Dr. Raj Jena, a radiation oncologist at Addenbrooke’s hospital, part of Cambridge University Hospitals in the United Kingdom, about Project InnerEye, a Microsoft Research effort that applies machine learning to medical image analysis. The pair shares how a 10-plus-year collaborative journey—and a combination of research and good software engineering—has resulted in the hospital’s creation of an AI system that is helping to decrease the time cancer patients have to wait to begin treatment. Alvarez and Jena chart the path of their collaboration in AI-assisted medical imaging, from Microsoft Research’s initiation of Project InnerEye and its decision to make the resulting research tools available in open source to Addenbrooke’s subsequent testing and validation of these tools to meet the regulatory requirements for use in a clinical setting. They also discuss supporting clinician productivity—and ultimately patient outcomes—and the important role patients play in incorporating AI into healthcare.Learn more:Project InnerEye | Project pageHow AI is helping to shrink waiting times for NHS cancer patients | Microsoft News Centre UK blog post, June 2023Accounting for past imaging studies: Enhancing radiology AI and reporting | Microsoft Research blog, June 2023Microsoft Health Futures | Lab pageBiomedical Imaging | Research group pageEvaluation of Deep Learning to Augment Image Guided Radiotherapy for Head and Neck and Prostate Cancers | JAMA publication, November 2020

Dr. Jina Suh and Dr. Shamsi Iqbal discuss their collaboration on developing data-driven tools for decision-making. They explore the integration of humans and data, the pressure on leaders to make the right decisions, and responsible use of data in the workplace.

Transforming research ideas into meaningful impact is no small feat. It often requires the knowledge and experience of individuals from across disciplines and institutions. Collaborators, a new Microsoft Research Podcast series, explores the relationships—both expected and unexpected—behind the projects, products, and services being pursued and delivered by researchers at Microsoft and the diverse range of people they’re teaming up with.In the world of gaming, Haiyan Zhang has situated herself where research meets real-world challenges, helping to bring product teams and researchers together to elevate the player experience with the latest AI advances even before the job became official with the creation of her current role, General Manager of Gaming AI. In this episode, she talks with host Dr. Gretchen Huizinga about the variety of expertise needed to avoid the discomfort experienced by players when they encounter a humanlike character displaying inhuman behavior, the potential for generative AI to make gaming better for both players and creators, and the games she grew up playing and what she plays now.Learn more:Game Intelligence | Group pageProject Paidia | Project pageTrueSkill™ Ranking System | Project pageTrueMatch Matchmaking System | Project pageGrounded Conversational Characters | Project page

Transforming research ideas into meaningful impact is no small feat. It often requires the knowledge and experience of individuals from across disciplines and institutions. Collaborators, a new Microsoft Research Podcast series, explores the relationships—both expected and unexpected—behind the projects, products, and services being pursued and delivered by researchers at Microsoft and the diverse range of people they’re teaming up with.In this episode, host Dr. Gretchen Huizinga welcomes Dr. Spencer Fowers, a member of the Special Projects Technical Staff at Microsoft Research, and Dr. Kwame Darko, a plastic surgeon in the reconstructive plastic surgery and burns center in Ghana’s Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. The two are among a group working to make specialized medical care more widely available, especially to those in remote or underserved communities. They share how their 3D telecommunication technology helps bring patients and doctors together when being in the same room isn’t an easy option and how the experience is supporting greater patient satisfaction, allowing more time for surgeons to prepare for surgery, and making the assembly of a super team of medical experts from around the globe more feasible.Learn more:3D telemedicine brings better care to underserved and rural communities, even across continents | Microsoft Research Blog, May 2023Microsoft’s Holoportation Communications Technology: Facilitating 3D Telemedicine | Microsoft Research video, May 2023Participatory Development of a 3D Telemedicine system during Covid: the future of remote consultations | Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery, October 20223D Telemedicine | Project pageHoloportation | Project pageKorle Bu Teaching Hospital